I was in the Keys last week and next door to me was this house destroyed by Hurricane Irma. The house was totaled but the pilings survived so the owner can rebuild. This prompted me to ask: Do you have the right structure on which to build? Management structure that is.
I recently met with a CEO who was spending too many hours a week dealing with accounting issues such as customer billing, robbing him of time to do more creative CEO work. It turns out he was overcompensating for deficiencies in his accounting department. If he had the right structure, reports with actionable data would be rolling off the line on time and things would be flowing as they should.
His business had multiple lines of business which were complicated from a bookkeeping standpoint. He had a $70,000 senior accountant doing his best to keep up but he lacked the leadership of a CFO to establish proper practices and streamline the work. His bookkeeper quit leaving him with no one to handle his complicated accounting and nothing strikes more fear in business owners than their bookkeeper leaving them high and dry.
So here’s the question: Are you wasting valuable time overcompensating for an under-developed function in your business? If so, why? That’s unnecessarily adding to your work overload, creating more stress on yourself and slowing you down from growing your business.
There’s no doubt in my mind that a high performing department led by the right person will return multitudes to net earnings. They’re profit centers, not cost centers. Plus, with your freed up time, you’ll multiply your earnings by having more time to think and create.
Oh and one more thing...
You want to sell your business one day, right? Having a management team in place is HUGE to a buyer. It means that they won't have to build one themselves and that long after you sail into the sunset, they'll have a great team to lean on. This will catapult your sales price so yet another reason to build your C-Suite now.
In today’s age, the right C-suite leaders are available part-time so there’s no excuse to live without. Go ahead and bet on the right leaders. Then bet on yourself to create more value with your newfound time. You and your bottom line will be smiling.
By the way, just as an aside, the term high and dry was first used in the 1700’s when a Russian freighter ran aground due to a low ebbing tide.
This is Robert Band, your business finance expert. Remember, one tip could be worth millions and profits today become fortunes tomorrow.